Chapter 44: Take Back the Great Zhao Kingdom? Leaving Great Tang... He Had No Capital

The disciples of Qingmu Mountain recounted the entire sequence of events, from beginning to end, in meticulous detail.

It was only at this moment that Li Muchen truly understood what it felt like to swallow filth.

This was what people called feeding a benefactor only to be bitten by him; those you help turn against you.

That non-blood-related aunt of his from Xilin was the true mastermind behind the entire scheme.

Just because life had not been going well for her in Xilin, she was willing to use the lives of hundreds of thousands of commoners in their Great Zhao Nation as venting tools for her frustration!

Besides, no one had ever forced her to marry Ji Hanliang, the Second Prince of the Northern Ji Nation.

It was entirely her own infatuation; she had loved Ji Hanliang to the point of obsession and insisted on marrying him.

For her sake, his late imperial uncle had even provided a generous dowry.

The sole purpose of that was to prevent Xilin from being bullied after her marriage.

Yet now...?!

That same Xilin aunt of his, despite living a miserable life of her own, had actually turned things around and shifted all the blame onto his mother and his late imperial uncle.

Such a treacherous, ungrateful dog deserved to be executed by a thousand cuts.

Clenching his fists tightly, Li Muchen slammed them down hard onto the table with a loud bang, gritting his teeth as he cursed, "Xilin, you wretched woman!!"

"I—will never let you go!"

Although Li Muchen was no longer the emperor of the Great Zhao Nation, the blood of the Great Zhao royal family still flowed through his veins.

Of his maternal grandfather's lineage, only his mother, his younger sister, and himself remained.

The Great Zhao Nation was on the verge of ruin; he could not simply stand by and watch it all happen without lifting a finger.

Li Jiahuo was not the son of his late imperial uncle; he was nothing more than an imposter.

Moreover, Li Jiahuo did not possess a single drop of Great Zhao royal blood.

Even if Li Jiahuo was the adoptive son of the Princess Consort of Xilin, that princess was merely the daughter of a minor vassal king with a different surname in Great Zhao.

She and the royal bloodline of Great Zhao shared not the slightest connection.

The Great Zhao Nation belonged to the Li family's imperial lineage.

He, Li Muchen, was determined to take it back.

He was bound to protect the hundreds of thousands of commoners of the Great Zhao Nation.

What on earth was the Second Prince of Northern Ji supposed to be?

It was not enough for him to devastate his own country; now he even dared to covet the Great Zhao Nation.

"You three—"

"Tell me everything you know, point by point."

"Including Qingmu Mountain's subsequent plans, which villages or towns in my Great Zhao Nation you intended to target first... and all other details. Report every single one of them honestly to me."

"As long as you are willing to speak the truth,"

"I will consider your assistance as a meritorious service to atone for your past sins."

"Since you can no longer return to the Northern Ji Nation, I will permit you to remain in my Great Tang Nation, grant you Great Tang household registration, and make you subjects of the Great Tang."

"What do you say? Do you accept this condition..."

As soon as Li Muchen finished speaking, a gleam of light flashed in the eyes of the three senior disciples of Qingmu Mountain.

Having fled the Northern Ji Nation, the three of them were effectively traitors to Qingmu Mountain and the Second Prince.

Given the Second Prince's cruel and bloodthirsty nature, he would certainly never spare their lives.

Rather than returning only to face death, or wandering aimlessly as miserable exiles,

it would be far better to become legitimate subjects of the Great Tang Nation.

That way, the three of them would finally have a place to settle down.

Even though the current Great Tang Nation still appeared rather backward and its various industries seemed desolate,

the fact that the former deposed emperor before them had managed to gather four extremely powerful mystical beasts to guard him within such a short span of time suggested that the Great Tang Nation surely had a promising future.

If they stayed to render meritorious service, the emperor of the Great Tang would certainly not treat them unfairly.

"Rest assured, Your Majesty!"

"As long as the Great Tang Nation is willing to shelter the three of us,"

"from this day forward, we three shall be utterly loyal to Your Majesty and to the Great Tang Nation."

Having made up their minds, the three men decided to reveal every single detail regarding the subsequent plans of Qingmu Mountain and Ji Hanliang with absolute clarity...

All for the sake of securing household registration in the Great Tang Nation.

With the assistance of the three senior disciples of Qingmu Mountain, Li Muchen gained a complete understanding of the subsequent action plans devised by Li Jiahuo and his cohorts.

As it turned out, they planned to target the most remote and backward small city in the Great Zhao Nation first.

They intended to sacrifice all the commoners of that small city to Ji Hanliang of the Northern Ji Nation as the very first batch of blood-offerings to fuel his ambitions.

Once every single remote, backward, and isolated small town had been thoroughly decimated,

Li Jiahuo and the others would then proceed to attack mid-tier cities.

Even if they only targeted small and medium-sized cities, the hundreds of thousands of lives in the Great Zhao Nation would be more than sufficient for Second Prince Ji Hanliang to elevate his cultivation realm.

Once their plans were laid bare, subsequent countermeasures would become much simpler.

There was only one troublesome aspect...

To sacrifice the population of an entire small city on a large scale, relying solely on mortal strength was an absolute impossibility.

In this matter, cultivators from Qingmu Mountain were to provide covert assistance.

Those cultivators would infiltrate the troops dispatched by Li Jiahuo and take charge of executing the sorcery rituals.

According to the original plan, the affairs in the Great Zhao Nation were primarily handled through a collaboration between Qingmu Mountain's cultivators and the newly enthroned puppet emperor Li Jiahuo.

However, Qingmu Mountain had recently suffered consecutive losses: its sect master, its holy master, and three elders had all perished...

Presently, the power and influence of Qingmu Mountain had plummeted drastically.

Low-level cultivators simply lacked the cultivation level required to sacrifice such a massive population.

Only top-tier cultivators, supported by numerous medium and high-level practitioners to guard the perimeter, could successfully complete such a sacrificial ritual.

Only by completing this ritual could the sacrificed souls effectively help elevate Ji Hanliang's cultivation realm.

Now, Qingmu Mountain was left with only a comatose second elder.

Even these three senior disciples had defected to his Great Tang Nation.

Second Prince Ji Hanliang could certainly no longer rely on Qingmu Mountain to accomplish this task.

"Ji Hanliang—apart from Qingmu Mountain, are there any other cultivator clans or sects under his control?"

Li Muchen continued to ask.

"Yes! The Second Prince still commands several other cultivator sects."

"That's right, the sect master has mentioned this before."

"Those sects seem to possess strength comparable to that of Qingmu Mountain."

"Now that Qingmu Mountain is gone, the Second Prince will undoubtedly dispatch those other cultivator sects under his command to the Great Zhao Nation to carry out this task."

Li Muchen stroked his chin and muttered to himself, "Is that so..."

If he wanted to rescue the commoners of the Great Zhao Nation, he would inevitably have to leave the territory of the Great Tang Nation.

Within the borders of the Great Tang, protected by the Vermilion Bird, the Black Tortoise, the Azure Dragon, and the White Tiger, and shielded by the national barrier, he naturally had no fear of foreign invasion.

However, if he were to venture outside...

That presented a genuine dilemma, for he could not take the four divine beasts out of the Great Tang Nation with him.

Otherwise,

it was quite possible that the moment he stepped away, someone would stage a coup and usurp his country from right behind him.

Rescuing the people of Great Zhao was important, but nothing could possibly supersede the safety and importance of the Great Tang Nation.

If that was the case...

He possessed no leverage or capital to fight back with either?

Suddenly,

the figure of a certain person flashed across Li મuuchen's mind...

"Right—him??"